Delta's traffic, load factor up in June
Delta Air Lines says its planes flew almost 88% full in June with a 4.2% rise in monthly traffic. Capacity rose at a slower 1.5% pace, leading to a 2.2% increase in system-wide occupancy. For the year to date, Delta's traffic is up 0.3%, while capacity has fallen by 2.4%
American passenger traffic increases 3.2% in June
American Airlines Inc. reports that its passenger traffic increased in June by 3.2%, well exceeding a 1.3% rise in flying capacity. Domestic traffic increased 1.2%, but the bigger increases were seen on international routes, with routes across the Pacific seeing a 15.4% increase, traffic to
Latin America rising 5.9% and routes across the Atlantic up 5.1%
US Airways reports record load factor in June
Mainline traffic at
US Airways climbed 2.9% in June, matching a 2.8% increase in capacity. Occupancy set a monthly record of 86.9%, up fractionally compared to June of last year. June's increase helped reduce the company's year-to-date traffic losses to 0.9%
AirTran sets June traffic record
AirTran Airways says traffic in June hit a monthly record of 1.89 billion
revenue passenger miles, a jump of 7.4% compared to the same month last year. For the first six months,
AirTran's traffic was up 7.7% to 9.59 billion revenue passenger miles
American Eagle may be for sale
AMR Corp. is again weighing a sale of its
American Eagle regional unit. Republic Holdings, the parent company of Frontier and
Midwest airlines, is seen as one potential buyer. But recent acquisitions mean "our plate is pretty full right now," according to a Republic spokesman, who refused to speculate further. Meanwhile, aviation consultant Michael Boyd doubts Republic would do a deal without negotiating very favorable terms. "It is getting hard to make money with 50-seat jets, and I'm not sure how many more of these small jets Republic would need," he says.
Lower capacity means hard choices after canceled flights
Some industry watchers say passengers whose flights are canceled are no longer getting the re-accommodations, hotel rooms and so forth that they might have expected in the past. The root of the change, according to some experts, is stricter wording found in the airlines' contracts of carriage. But airlines say that their legal obligations represent only a starting point, and that they do their best to help passengers on canceled flights. "We empower our employees to make decisions if they find themselves in a situation with a customer that is unique or a special circumstance," says a spokeswoman for
Delta Air Lines
DOT finalizes Tokyo route approvals
The Transportation Department
on Tuesday confirmed a tentative decision awarding three U.S. carriers with routes to Tokyo's close-in Haneda Airport, a favorite with
business travelers. Delta Air Lines will get two flights a day, while
American Airlines and
Hawaiian Airlines each will get one. The new flights are expected to begin in October
Airlines see multiple advantages to hand-held technology
At airports around the country, U.S. airlines are increasing their use of mobile technology to shorten passenger waiting times -- and, potentially, to increase sales of ancillary offerings. Hand-held devices allow roving agents to confirm gate changes, issue baggage tags and more. The devices are seen as a way to personalize customer service, but the investment could pay off in other ways, making it more convenient for passengers to upgrade their seats, pay for oversized bags and so forth. "A number of airlines are looking at not just queue-busting, but maximizing opportunities for up-sale," says Gregory Ouillon of aviation technology firm SITA.
Delta, US Airways vow to sue over FAA limits on slot-swap plan
Delta Air Lines and US Airways notified the FAA
on Friday that they had "elected not to proceed" with a proposed slot swap in New York and Washington, D.C., due to government demands that they shed some slots in a blind auction. The carriers said they would seek judicial review of the auction requirement, though no lawsuit had yet been filed. Delta and US Airways had agreed to sell some slots to selected
low-cost carriers, but the FAA rejected that compromise as inadequate for protecting competition at Washington National and New York LaGuardia.
Standoff continues over FAA reauthorization labor provision
Overnight delivery companies FedEx and UPS continue their dueling campaigns regarding the labor provision included in the
FAA Reauthorization bill. "It is unusual to see a full-blown, integrated campaign of this type over such a specific and narrow policy issue," said Douglas Pinkham, president of the
Public Affairs Council, a nonpartisan communications strategies group that includes both FedEx and UPS as members.
Alitalia joins SkyTeam joint venture across the Atlantic
A joint venture by Delta Air Lines and
Air France-KLM will control about 26% of trans-Atlantic traffic following Monday's announcement that fellow SkyTeam member Alitalia will join the group. "The joint venture is a way of ramping up operational scale while keeping corporate balance sheets of member companies sustainable," said the CEO of Alitalia, which has struggled through bankruptcy, cost-cutting and strikes in recent years. Joining in the trans-Atlantic effort is "fundamental for the definitive revival" of Alitalia, he said, noting that other airlines may be added.
